University of Arkansas students stick their heads together to assemble the Geo-Wall construction

Author: Tiffany Horax | Major: Civil Engineering | Semester: Spring 2024

My name is Tiffany Horax and I am a junior at the University of Arkansas pursuing a bachelor of science in civil engineering and a minor in mathematics. Through my research, I am exploring additional applications for a microwave sensor, which was designed for concrete monitoring, but may also be used to collect immediate moisture readings of soil. While continuing this research, I have also started another project, which involves creating vibrations in pavement with hammers and analyzing the waves collected from different distances to understand the pavement properties.

At the end of February, I traveled to Vancouver, Canada with three other students in my research group. We attended the National 2024 GeoCongress Conference as one of the twelve universities competing in the Geo-Wall competition. Our group was chosen to join based on the paper we submitted in December. After months of preparation, we bring our paper wall design to life by constructing it and testing the strength, stability, and accuracy against the hundreds of pounds of soil that we compacted behind it. The University of Arkansas has competed in the Geo-Wall competition and a few of the other competitions in the past; however, this was the first time we have competed post-covid.

The Geo-Wall competition tests our skills to build our paper wall and support design, which was designed specifically for the provided soil properties, so being in that competition helped to sharpen my soil knowledge for research, while also giving me more perspective and ways to tackle the same challenge. Aside from the competition, there were many parts of the conference that greatly expanded my knowledge for my pavement research. A handful of the technical sessions covered the different methods used to predict and measure pavement properties, including the surface wave method that I have been studying. One of the larger lectures also covered a similar test method, which gave me new ideas and broadened my knowledge that can be applied to my pavement waves research.

While we did not receive direct feedback on our Geo-Wall design, we still learned many new methods from the other teams so we can be more efficient for next year’s conference. I personally also gained experience working under short time and pressure, ensuring that our measurements and construction is conducted properly.

This trip greatly contributed to my professional development, not only when each group and team member’s profile and career interests were announced while we competed in the Geo-Wall competition, but also during the various allotted networking sessions throughout the conference. The convention hall offered plenty of room for the number of presenters, employers, and university representatives to display their information and talk comfortably with students and other attendees. There were also a few dinners or extra activities provided that allowed a more casual environment to network with employers and other students alike. There were universities from across the United States, but many of the companies were centered outside the United States, especially from Canada, and it was quite interesting to gain knowledge and professional connections without any borders or limitations.

Alongside the networking done with other companies, there were plenty of opportunities to listen to and meet experts from my field. As someone who is still deciding on which civil engineering field to pursue, hearing so many geotechnical and geoenvironmental professionals and experts have helped me become more certain about my major and future. I thoroughly enjoyed the panel discussions, where the panelists described the educational and professional path towards their careers. They answered many questions from my peers, helped me learn more about my field, and made me more certain about continuing my education to graduate school to gain my master’s in civil engineering.

I would advise other students to actively search for and attend conferences pertaining towards their area of interest, with the National GeoCongress Conferences being just one of many great opportunities to network and gain new knowledge. With such a broad range of companies and lecturers to speak with and attend, the conference is a great opportunity to reach out to more specialized branches and make stronger connections, while also gaining more knowledge on very specific and harder to find topics that may not be easily available at their universities. I would also highly advise other students to attend the panel talks, as they are more generalized but still so fascinating, as you get to learn about everyone’s different backgrounds and gain new ideas and insights.

I am eternally grateful to be given the opportunity to attend the conference, and I really hope to attend the next National GeoCongress in Kentucky. From my experiences watching and participating in the competition, there are some new ideas that I hope to experiment with and implement for our future trips and conferences. In the meantime, I will be continuing my soils research and applying my new knowledge to explore different ideas and techniques. I began running tests for my pavement research after returning from the trip, and it is clear how much I’ve already learned. I also plan on exploring the different career and educational paths I can take, from deciding which undergraduate civil fields to focus on, to examining the different topics that I could specialize in as I explore graduate school and my career to demonstrate how much I’ve grown and give back to the world.